Community Resilience from the Inside Out
Community Resilience from the Inside Out
Welcome, E komo mai, Karuwainene, ようこそ, 欢迎, 환영하다 , Mabuhay, Bienvenido
Welcome to the Center for Resilient Neighborhoods (CERENE)!
We are a community-based research center located at Kapi’olani Community College dedicated to a more resilient O’ahu!
CERENE works in collaboration with the City and County of Honolulu Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resilience as well as the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Mānoa along with a network of engaged community collaborators such as the Waikīkī Community Center, Ko’olauloa Community Resilience Center, ‘We are Oceania’, and many others.
The mission of CERENE is to support neighborhood-level resilience planning. This includes how to best implement actions from the state and local hazard mitigation plans at the neighborhood level using the unique capabilities and resources of Kapi’olani Community College and our partners. Through partnership development, civic engagement, student service learning, and leveraging existing resources, CERENE will build capacity to reduce natural hazard risk and increase resiliency in and around the primary urban core of Honolulu.
The vision for the CERENE center is to become a thriving support hub at the center of community resilience work across the island, supporting community resilience, environmental sustainability, and climate change adaptation by providing a bridge between non-profit community-based organizations, government agencies, and local neighborhoods.
All with the help of our students right here at Kapiʻolani Community College and the UH System more broadly. Our students are stepping up to help make O‘ahu more resilient to climate change impacts and future disaster scenarios through the CERENE Resilience Corps Leadership Award Program. Through the generous support of Hawaiian Electric and State Farm, we are able to provide students with a stipend to tackle resilience service work with different non-profits and government agencies across O’ahu.
CERENE has a growing undergraduate research program supporting both social science and biophysical student resilience research at Kapiʻolani Community College as well as the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Click HERE to learn more about our student research.
To develop pandemic and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery plans, CERENE will bring together representatives from neighborhood-specific non-profits, public schools, government, emergency management, and neighborhood boards.The key objectives are to plan for and take action to mitigate the risks from hazards; increase the pace of recovery from destructive elements; adapt to changing environments; and integrate risk and community-based collaborative strategies into plans and programs. CERENE will serve the 55,000 residents in East Honolulu and the 440,000 residents in O‘ahu’s primary urban center.
CERENE has four active resilience research and community projects ongoing right now focused on food security, micro-grid energy storage, community resilience hubs, and community perceptions of resilience.
Want to keep up with community resilience happenings in your neighborhood and/or our resilience research (and findings!) across the island?
Sign up here to join our listserv: https://forms.gle/NiBS3kY9XvP3nVpa7
There are many ways to follow, participate, and keep up with this work, from monthly talk story sessions to actively participating in neighborhood planning as part of the Action 15 Community Resilience Research program. By choosing which way you would like to get involved, by making your selections in the form above.
You are invited to our newly formed Oʻahu Resilience Networked Improvement Community!
Do you love your neighborhood? Love community? Want to help support the newly formed resilience network? Become a NIC Fellow! Email us at cerene15@hawaii.edu for more information. We are just getting started with this and are excited to work with you.
For questions regarding community resilience research and resilience happenings in your neighborhood, please contact us at cerene15@hawaii.edu. We are excited to embark on this co-learning journey with you and provide our support! Please keep in touch and let us know what you think. We would love to hear from you.
The Resilience Corps Leadership Award Program is made possible through funding from our generous donors Hawaiian Electric and State Farm.
We are grateful for the support from State Farm Insurance for our RCL program. They provided the initial funding for the RCL initiative, which was based on the Global Council for Science and the Environment’s (GCSE)* EnvironMentors model. Then they funded the Resilient Neighborhoods Corps (RENECO) as well as keynote speakers for the 2021 and 2023 Continuum’s of Service Conference.
*Formerly the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE).